d his hand into the air. "Here they
are. Colonel Forno, give them the bayonet!"

Louisiana and Georgia swept forward, Tennessee, Alabama, and Virginia
supporting. They swept Grover's brigade down and back. There was bitter
fighting, hand-to-hand, horrible work: the dead lay in the railroad cut
thick as fallen leaves. The dead lay thick on either bank and thick in
the grass that was afire and thick in the smoky wood. The blue gave way,
went back; the grey returned to their lines.

Edward went again for cartridges. He was beside Gregg's South
Carolinians when a courier came up. "General Jackson wishes to know each
brigade's amount of ammunition," and he heard Gregg's answer, "Tell
General Jackson that this brigade has one round to the man, but I'll
hold the position with the bayonet." Edward gleaned steadily. "Water!
water! water!" cried the field. "O God! water!"

It was growing late, the long, hot day declining. There had been nine
hours of fighting. "Nine hours--ninety hours--ninety minutes?" thought
Edward. "Time's plastic like everything else. Double it, fold it back on
itself, stretch it out, do anything with it--" He took the cartridges
from a trunk of a man, crept on to a soldier shot through the hip. The
latter clutched him with a blackened hand. "Has Marse Robert come? Has
General Lee come?"

"They say he has. Over there on Stuart's Hill, holding Reynolds and
McDowell and Fitz John Porter in check."

The man fell back. "Oh, then it is all right. Stonewall Jackson and
Robert Edward Lee. It's all right--" He spoke drowsily. "It's all right.
I'll go to sleep."

Edward looking sideways toward Stony Ridge saw the forty guns black
against the sun. As he looked they blazed and thundered. He turned his
eyes. Kearney and Reno, five brigades, were coming at a double across
the open. As he looked they broke into the charge. With his bag of
cartridges he made for the nearest grey line. The blue came on, a
formidable wave indeed. Stonewall Jackson rode along the grey front.

"Men, General Early and two regiments of Lawton's are on their way. You
must stand it till they come. If you have only one cartridge, save it
until they are up from the cut. Then fire, and use your bayonets. Don't
cheer! It makes your hand less steady."

The blue wave plunged into the railroad cut. "I think," said a grey
soldier, "that I hear Jubal Early yelling." The blue wave mounted to the
level. "_Yaaaiih! Yaaaaiih!_" came out of the distanc